Update: Zarhym made an interesting post on the new community site regarding the invasion! Seems it will be even sooner before we see the next phase of the invasion!

The time between the start of stage 2 and stage 3 was shorter. I can tell you the current plan is to make the time between stage 3 and 4 even shorter. ;)

Phase 3: November 12 - November ???

Twilight's Cult (Part II)Now, the second half of the story about the Twilight Hammer. After having prevented their assault on Orgrimmar and Stormwind, Garrosh and Varian have decided to take the fight to the enemy. It will be up to you to capture some cultists, learn their rituals, and ultimately disrupt them. You will also make an important trip to meet someone very important in Nagrand and learn further about the elemental invasion.

Little progress has been made toward mending Azeroth's dire condition. Thrall has nonetheless continued forging ahead in search of answers. Most recently, he journeyed to his ancestors' lands in Nagrand on the shattered world of Outland. At the fabled Throne of the Elements, he has met with other wise shaman, including the venerable dwarf Gavan Grayfeather, hoping to glean even the smallest shred of insight that could help him save Azeroth from ruin.

Meanwhile, Twilight's Hammer cultists have been caught infiltrating Orgrimmar and Stormwind City, sparking panic and suspicion among the two great cities' inhabitants. Although the cult's earlier bid to wreak havoc on these capitals had failed, this new development has raised fears that the Twilight's Hammer is poised to launch another, far more devastating attack.

The events leading up to Cataclysm are underway and a great disturbance of the elements has erupted. Don’t miss out on the all-new quests featured during this one-time-only series of events.

The other night I stumbled upon the work of the talented regisfrost on Reddit, where he had posted an assortment of nicely made and extremely informative images that I guarantee will be of value to many players in preparation for the Cataclysm! He's given us permission to share with you guys this awesome collection, detailing locations of each of the new dungeons launching with Cataclysm.

Remember, come Cataclysm, you will not be able to queue for one of the new dungeons via the Dungeon Finder unless you have first discovered its entrance! Thankfully, Blizzard has assured us that the normal leveling path will lead you to discovering most of these dungeons without much effort, but there's definitely no such thing as too much information! Enjoy!

We've also put together a video showing easy paths you can take to reach each instance portal! :)

Blizzard's having some fun with their new forums (how can they not, they're pretty awesome!) and they've posted their first poll, asking a pretty interesting question:

If you believed the end of Azeroth was nigh, what would be the first thing you'd do?

Most of the options are pretty funny, and a few raise some very good points - like why not just go to Outland? Nagrand is pretty nice every time of the year, after all, and there's no reminder of Deathwing ravaging the land. Besides, who doesn't love floating islands?

The earth shakes with growing frequency. Elementals pour out of rifts like rodents escaping a sinking ship. Your esteemed faction leaders, barely recovered from the strain of the campaign in Northrend, have been summoned to deliberate on a matter most urgent. And now, doomsayers affiliated with the Twilight's Hammer are gathering openly within the city walls, preaching the coming of something dark and ancient... and the ruination of all.

What in the Light's name is going on?

With the world in upheaval and its people in a panic, it's time to prepare for the worst. If the end of Azeroth is indeed at hand, how would you want to spend your final days?

You can check out Blizzard's poll in this forum thread and make your choice. Personally, I'm a sucker for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and judging by the results so far, I'm not the only one) but there's some pretty good choices (Blizzard loves their Invader Zim references, too, of course). The blog tags are pretty funny, too.

It's hard to imagine that our characters are living in a world where we don't know that Deathwing is coming, don't know the Cataclysm is going to destroy pretty much everything and can't even fathom the challenges and atrocities we're about to face (like female dwarf shamans). But hey, it's the truth. Blizzard's suggestions aren't good enough for you? Ok, the Cataclysm is coming - what are you going to do?

We've got a few new models from the latest Cataclysm build, including some adorable new companion pets (and Lil' Ragnaros, too, since he doesn't like being called adorable) and more! Be sure to click the models to check 'em out in 3D amazingness!

Update #1: We've got videos of the new companion pets for you guys, complete with all of their cute animations! You can view them below. If you're into high-quality videos, be sure to click the titles and check out these videos in beautiful high-resolution 720p HD on the ZAMOfficial YouTube channel!Update #2: Troll Druids have a new flight form model! Check out our video and model-viewer rendering of it below!

These new companion pets (as we blogged about earlier) will be available for purchase from the Blizzard Online Store soon! Unfortunately, unlike their previous pet offerings, it looks as though these hatchlings might actually be faction-specific (so no Night Elf moonkins for us Hordies, and vice versa). C'mon, Blizzard, prove me wrong! And while you're at it, I've got three words for ya - plush raid bosses. DO IT.

Remember, you can link directly to any model on our site by copying the URL from your browser while it is open.

Blizzard announced something I know quite a few of us have been waiting for: Race/Faction Changes for both Worgen and Goblins will be available on launch day!

There is a little caveat to the way paid services work for goblins and worgen: either of them wishing to change races or factions cannot be in either Gilneas or Lost Isles. There is no restrictions on on players wishing to change to goblins or worgen.

With two new playable races just on the horizon, many players have been asking when they'll be able to convert their existing characters into goblins or worgen. Paid faction and race changes will be available immediately once Cataclysm is released. Realm First achievements for leveling any class to 85 will be available in Cataclysm. However there will be no Realm First achievements associated with leveling characters of a specific race.

There will be a slight change to the way paid services work for goblins and worgen. Goblin and worgen characters wishing to change race or faction cannot be in Lost Isles or Gilneas; they must be elsewhere to initiate the process. There are no restrictions on race/faction change to goblin or worgen.

Seems sometime this morning Blizzard flipped the switch and began Phase 2 of the Elemental Invasion! While helping the Earthen Ring fight against the elementals, you will find several new quests in both Ironforge and Orgrimmar.

Phase 2: November 8 - November ???

Tablets of the Earth / Tablets of FireGo to the harbor / zeppelin tower and talk to the quest NPC there. A short event will begin, where you - imbued with the powers of the Tablets - need to use your new abilities to fight various elemental attackers off. Remember, use water to counter fire, air to counter earth, and fire to counter water. After the event is over loot the tablets and turn the quest in.

Zarhym just posted a rather interesting announcement: in Cataclysm raiders will only be allowed one use of Rebirth or Soulstone in 10-player encounters. In 25-player raid encounters, you will be able to use a maximum of 3 resurrections. There is no equivalent of a "Sated" debuff to track how many times you have resurrected.

What is everyone's opinion on this? Do you think it's better for raiders or worse?

Something unexpected out of the latest Cataclysm Beta build - they've updated some of the existing dwarf female hairstyles! So far, they've changed three of the existing hairstyles and added one new one. I haven't checked all of other races to see if they've gotten anything new, just confirmed that the troll female hairstyles are all still bad.

Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard — you can add all of the new hairstyles you want but it won't change the fact that there are simply some player character races out there which are dramatically in need of some updates. Maybe after the Cataclysm, Deathwing could ravage over some NPC models as well? It worked for Desolace, right?

The hairstyles changed are, in order, Bobbed, Bun, Flirty and Waved Bun. Click to see 'em all big and dwarfy (wait, that makes no sense). Enjoy!

Blizzard has issued a call to arms for feedback of the Heroic difficulty modes of the upcoming Cataclysm raids, now testable on the Cataclysm Beta servers. Threads have been made on the official forums requesting feedback for each of the new encounters. Cataclysm Beta Testers can access these threads and offer valuable feedback here.

To make this testing a little easier, Blizzard has made available new premade template characters, decked out in item level 359 gear (including full sets of Tier 11). Each account should have 5 new premades available.

There are new premade 359 templates available, but feel free to try with the 346 templates and whatever epics you might of gained from previous raid testing if you wish.

I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you guys that the Wowhead Clientdoes in fact work on the Cataclysm Beta realms and implore you guys to run the Wowhead Looter addon while participating in any Cataclysm content. We'll always keep doing our thing and getting the data up for you guys, but it helps us out a ton when users submit their data as well - which includes much-needed, valuable information such as drop sources, drop rates, and such! We wouldn't be half as awesome as we are without the help of you guys! :)

If you are a guild leader, or officer / member, of any guild actively participating in endgame content on the Cataclysm Beta realms and want to help us out (and get some exposure), drop us a line at and let us know! We're interested in all sorts of Cataclysm content, including videos, guides, and (especially) data files as detailed above!